HIGHEST POINT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24035, 5 August 1941, Page 8

HIGHEST POINT

PEAK IN WAITAREB.ES DISCOVERY BY MR, MEAD OFFICIAL RECOGNITION For many years the eminence known as JRu aotewhenu a, overlooking the new Scenic Drive and about 2i miles westward of Waiatarua, has been regarded as the highest point in the Waitakere Ranges, but a peak much further to the south located by the city waterworks engineer, Mr. A. D. Mead, approximately 70 feet higher, has now been recognised by the Government Geographic Board and named ie Toiokawharu. Ruaotewhenua has a height of 1437 feet and Te Toiokawharu 1506 feet. Mr. Mead said yesterday that this higher peak had not previously been shown on survey maps, apparently because it was not regarded as a suitable point for a trig station owing to its interior situation and not visible from & sufficient number ot points. Two Miles South o! Huia Dam .When carrying out a waterway survey in the southern end of the V* aitakere area some years ago Mr. Mead located this peak at the junction-, of tho watershed ridges between the Huia, Pararaha and Xaramatura, streams. It is just two miles southward from the Huia dam. Mr. Mead later communicated with the Geographic Board suggesting that a name be allocated. _ The letter from the board explains that the name Te Toiokawharu means "the summit of Kawharu" and it was here that the Ngati-Whatua, r le Kawharu's ancestors, being people of Waikato origin, had a pigeon-spearing tree) in the hollow of which I'e Kawharu's bones reposed until taken for interment in the Kaipara about 1820. Older Name Probably Forgotten

"Te Kawharu, however, is a comparatively recent man," adds the letter, "and no doubt'the summit had ■a still older name, and like many others was forgotten or changed in the course of time by new settlers or a later generation of people." The board mentions its indebtedness to Wiremu Paora and Rangitutahi, both descendants of Te Kawharu, for the historical facta regarding this jpoint. Few people othe* than trampers are likely to visit this southern peak for ..some years as there are no roads in the 'locality. The peak with its recently recognised height has been marked on the latest map of the Waitakere Ranges issued by the Automobile Association (Auckland).